Archive for the ‘Florida foreclosures’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Prediction: “Impossible Number” of Foreclosures to Come?

Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Share|

If the apple does not fall far from the tree; how far does the real estate market fall from foreclosures?

More than 11.5 million people will eventually default on their mortgages, predicts a leading mortgage analyst.

Did you read that right? Yes.

It’s no surprise that the weakening real-estate market has a strong correlation to the amount of severe negative-equity properties forecast to foreclose. Just like the old saying goes: the apple does not fall far from the tree.

Amherst Securities Group LP, one of the most respected companies in mortgage research, fears the current conditions are leading to an “impossible number” of defaults. This means more homeowners will lose their homes and more properties will be foreclosed.

So what does this mean for you?

More foreclosed homes mean an even greater supply of distressed homes. This excess inventory will lead to greater drops in the values of houses, not to mention the effects on communities as a whole.

As a result of more distressed houses, homeowners will also find it even more difficult to sell their houses. Such conditions lead to a feedback loop of underwater homes because of greater drops in home values and therefore a greater number of foreclosures.

To make matters worse, government intervention could alleviate the pain, however, the government seems unable or unwilling to do what needs to be done.

In order to stabilize home prices, government-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could remove excess inventory from the sale market and list them on the rental market. A smaller sales inventory will stabilize the market and help home prices to begin to recover. A greater amount of homes in the rental market will also cause rental prices to drop, helping struggling renters who are unable to buy.
(more…)

Tags: , ,
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Foreclosure Fraud | 1 Comment »

Video Interview: Roy Oppenheim on Florida Real Estate Double Dip

Monday, August 1st, 2011
Share|

South Florida Law Blog’s Roy Oppenheim says we’re not out of the woods yet! A second wave of Florida foreclosures will hit in the third quarter of this year, Florida Double Dip? Foreclosures, Zombie Foreclosures, Fraud-closures from Oppenheim Law on Vimeo.

Oppenheim Law Predictions:

  1. Government programs such as unemployment benefits as well as the reduction in payroll tax benefits are coming to an end.
  2. Florida banks have supposedly gotten their “fraud-closure” crisis and issues of robo-signing under control and are going to submit many new foreclosures.
  3. If that wasn’t enough, foreclosures that were initially dismissed by the courts due to incomplete and inaccurate paperwork are now being “revived” and will also contribute to the tidal wave of foreclosures.
  4. Sustaining housing prices will be difficult with the ending of government programs, new foreclosures hitting, and “Zombie” foreclosures coming in because there simply isn’t enough economic support.

Unless there is a surge in Florida employment, Oppenheim predicts we are heading towards another drop in Florida real estate values until early 2012.

Special note: Just don’t shoot the messenger!

Tags: , ,
Posted in Financial Times, Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Roy Oppenheim | 4 Comments »

Foreclosures to Rentals. Obama Finally Listens to Oppenheim Law

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
Share|

Taking a cue from Oppenheim Law, the Obama Administration is mulling over plans to reduce the number of foreclosed homes on the market by renting them out, according to the Wall Street Journal.

As the large inventory of distressed homes on the market continues to push a reduction in home prices as well as an increase in rental prices, the government is thinking about renting the homes owned by Fannie and Freddie.

The proposal has two benefits:

  1. Reducing the amount of distressed homes for sale
  2. Clearing the surplus of homes currently unoccupied.

These benefits would be the keys to a successful housing market recovery. Increasing the amount of rental properties available can also stabilize rent prices, which have been going up as foreclosed families wait before buying another home.

While the benefits of the proposal are obvious, it is still just a proposal. It’s too bad the Administration did not listen to Oppenheim Law back in 2009 when we advocated using the inventory of foreclosed homes to benefit communities, instead of just letting them sit unoccupied and cause suburban blight.

The Government could easily enact the proposal by ordering Fannie and Freddie to sell their foreclosed homes to investors who promise to rent them out. The investors could then hire management companies to look after the houses. If the Administration decides to follow through with the plan, the Government might actually make money on the deal and help the housing recovery at precisely the right time for it: before the next wave of foreclosures hit. That way, the market can be more resilient when the next hit comes and absorb more losses.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, The Wall Street Journal | 3 Comments »

Foreclosure Notice by Facebook: Banks New Advantage Over Homeowners

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
Share|

What does the digital future of foreclosures look like with social networks like Facebook? Oppenheim Law explores how living in a gated community or hanging out on Facebook may impact the foreclosure process.

In the never-ending battle by the banks to make things just a little easier for them, courts in Australia began to authorize banks to serve foreclosure proceedings via Facebook.

In order to begin Florida foreclosure defense proceedings, it is necessary for banks to prove that a homeowner has been successfully served, or notified, before proceeding in court. Service is usually carried out by process servers who try to physically track down the homeowner in order to give them the initial paperwork. Now, not only have banks in Australia gotten authorization to serve via Facebook, but banks in New Zealand, Canada and England have also obtained authorization from courts to serve foreclosure notices using Facebook, in addition to the traditional means.

Why is such a new method undesirable here in Florida? Because banks in the rest of the world didn’t have the document mill scandals that plagued Florida.

Currently, electronic service is only permitted when people have authorized it beforehand. However, it is easy to envision a future where lenders will require borrowers to allow themselves to be electronically served. If banks cannot even be relied upon to properly keep track of legal documents and not to commit fraud, then they should not be given yet another potent tool to put in their arsenal.

Florida Foreclosure Law Changes: Gated Communities and Condominiums

A potent tool that banks in Florida did get, however, is a change to the law regarding service of process to gated communities and condominiums. Before July 1st, gated communities and condominiums did not have to allow process servers in unannounced.
(more…)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Foreclosure Defense | 1 Comment »

Beware of Zombie Foreclosures! Cases Dismissed Months Ago are Now Back from the Dead

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
Share|

It’s a case of Dawn of the Dead called zombie foreclosures. In addition to the wave of Florida foreclosure cases expected once the banks get their paperwork in order and begin to foreclose on new homes again, a different wave of foreclosure cases is also ready to crest. The second wave is the zombie foreclosure wave.

The zombie cases are the ones that were dismissed without prejudice, meaning that they can be re-filed; because lawyers for the banks didn’t show up to hearings or the cases were dismissed due to legal and technical irregularities. Typically, such cases were handled by large foreclosure mills that had sloppy practices.

Now banks are getting a second shot at the cases, which will further clog the court system with even more cases. However, the backlog in the courts and the long periods of inactivity in the zombie cases does buy homeowners more time.

The future surge of cases also creates the danger that the “cookie-cutter” approach lambasted by Judge Jennifer Bailey, the head of the Miami-Dade civil court division, will once again be used by lawyers overwhelmed by the sheer number of cases to deal with. The problem is that the cookie-cutter approach was what allowed the banks and mortgage servicers to fraudulently foreclose on homeowners in the first place.

There is the potential, with the anticipated surge in foreclosure cases, for further fraud and abuse.

The irony is it could be happening with the exact same foreclosure cases that the document mills mishandled in the first place!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Florida foreclosures | 7 Comments »

Hooray for Sheila Bair, a Regulator Who Stood Up for the Little Guy

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Share|

Three cheers for Sheila Bair, the former head of the FDIC and a true advocate for the little guy, who resigned this week on July 8th. She fought for what is right for the homeowner, the depositor and the taxpayer.

Shelia was probably the only person in the Obama administration who really “got it.”

As a financial regulator, she understood the crisis as we do at Oppenheim Law, on the ground and in the trenches.

Truly the champion of the little guy, Sheila really understood that there were two sets of rules in this country:one set for big banks and another set for everyone else.

Her opinion was always dismissed and considered inferior to that of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. She knew that the Obama Administration, while maybe understanding the plight of the little guy, always capitulated to the interests of big business, Wall Street and the banks.

Sheila understood that from Day One her responsibility was to protect the consumer, the depositor, the homeowner, and most importantly, the taxpayer. In a major piece written in the New York Times magazine this past weekend, she questioned why investment banks that were “counterparties” to AIG, like Goldman Sachs, received 100 cents on the dollar from the AIG bailout. Goldman, in fact, received over $12 billion from the bailout. As is well known, many people in the administration were in fact in some way connected to Goldman.

Before the crisis had truly descended upon our nation in 2007, Sheila understood that if banks were required to modify mortgages there was a possibility that the foreclosure crisis which led to the meltdown of the real estate market and subsequent destruction of the economy could possibly be contained.
(more…)

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, From The Trenches, Loan Modification, Roy Oppenheim | 2 Comments »

From ‘Hope’ to ‘Housing’ – Oppenheim Law Looks Ahead to the 2012 Presidential Election

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Share|

‘Hope’ stands as a fleeting memory for most Americans as unemployment stagnates, housing prices fall and economic growth looms as a lofty promise unfulfilled. And as we get closer to the 2012 Presidential Election, it’s becoming clear that the ideological political landscape that dominated the 2008 election cycle will be eclipsed by a menacing elephant in the room: the economy.

The President is well aware of the uphill battle he faces when it comes to convincing voters and campaign financers that his economic policies and regulations have not only been what we needed the past three years, but also what we need in the next four. According to The New York Times, President Obama has already started reaching out to the skeptical financial industry on Wall Street, hoping to win back one of his most vital sources of campaign cash.

While many on Wall Street view the President’s financial rhetoric as unfair to their industry, his apparent goal is to prove that his fiscal policies have helped to bring the banks and financial markets back to health and toward sustained growth.

The argument goes that the economy would have been dramatically worse at this stage had the Obama administration not taken the action it did in the wake of the real estate and financial crisis.

But how do you prove a negative? You can’t.

Historically, recessions have been ended by a wave of homeowner refinancing that predictably follows a lowering of interest rates. The President faces a number of obstacles to accomplishing a refinancing boom, however.
(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Fraud, International News, Loan Modification, Roy Oppenheim, The New York Times, Underwater Mortgage | 3 Comments »

Page 5 of 29« First...34567...1020...Last »
PHP/MySQL Components, WordPress Plugins, and Technology Opinions at TravisWeston.com

Bad Behavior has blocked 2723 access attempts in the last 7 days.